Brussels, 11/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - We all agree that the big targets in the energy and climate package (the famous 3 x 20 by 2020, Ed.) must be maintained even if there are changes within the categories themselves, said Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, chair of the European Liberal and Democrat Party, on Thursday 11 December 2008. Graham Watson, chair of the liberal group at the European Parliament, hoped political agreement would be reached at the current European Council to ensure the higher costs of failure to reach agreements would not be handed down to future generations. He said the issuing of too many free pollution permits ran the risk of holding back the necessary changes in companies and would have a negative impact on auction prices in the future. Warning against too low an allocation of quotas to raise funds for big carbon capture and storage programmes, he said the 150 million in carbon credits offered by the Council (compared with the EP's desire for 350 million) would fund just two pilot projects.
On the European Economic Recovery Plan that the European Council is expected to validate, the Liberals are aware that the main responsibility for ensuring economic recovery lies with the Member States as 'masters of the tools and the means' said Neyts-Uyttebroeck, adding that markets had to remain open. She did not endorse the European Commission target of 1.5% of EU GDP, but did say that the recovery package had to be big enough to make a difference. Watson talked of the burden of burgeoning public debt on future generations. Nick Clegg, the leader of the British Liberal Democrat Party, said the economic crisis was a test for the EU to show that collective action could answer citizens' fears and 'European Union' could be a synonym for 'protection'. On the increase in the numbers of MEPs at the next Parliament stipulated in the Nice Treaty (from 736 to 754, 3 more than under the Lisbon Treaty), Watson commented that it was very reasonable. (M.B. trans fl)